A fun visit to Mexico City

Tuesday afternoon Bethie and I headed into Mexico City by bus. We took a taxi to our hotel and got settled in, then walked about the Zona Rosa (the area of Mexico City called the Pink Zone) looking for our fav - Papa John's. It was luscious as always. After a short night of rest, we headed to the airport at 5 AM the next day.

Rachel Racke, my great niece, and her friend Vanessa Lewis arrived right on time: 5:43. But no one was there to meet them! Yikes! What to do??? Well, Bethie and I were there, but at Terminal 2, not Terminal 1 where they were!! Rachel's mom told me she was arriving by Continental, but there didn't seem to be any Continental flights arriving anytime near 5:43 AM! Bethie and I finally decided I'd take the shuttle bus to Terminal 1 and she'd wait at Terminal 2! And sure enough, Rachel, Vanessa and I met up at Terminal 1. So, what went wrong??? Ruth failed to tell me that the particular Continental flight they were on was being operated by United - which, you guessed it! Arrives at Terminal 1! I'm SO GLAD Bethie went with me to meet them!! What would have happened otherwise - I don't even want to go there!

Back to the hotel for Rachel and Vanessa to sleep a couple hours, then we were off to see the sights! First the incredible Chapultepec Castle, then to the Alameda (a large park downtown), the Bellas Artes Theatre, the Latin American Tower, then to Sanborns. That's where we met up with Felix, my "Mexican nephew", for lunch. He talked a blue streak - I'm sure he's very lonely since the death of his mother earlier this year. We had a great time, then we were off again, this time to the Ciudadela, a fabulous artisan market. That's where this picture was taken. It's fuzzy, sorry. But you should see the one Felix took of the girls and me! Whew! So, I don't feel so badly - at least in this one you can "sort of" see the faces! Ha!

Vanessa, Felix, Bethie and Rachel

Felix then took us back to the hotel where we hit the sack at around 7:30 - at least three of us did, that is. I couldn't sleep that early! Instead I almost finished a fascinating book you may have heard of, The Scarlet Pimpernel! I've seen the movie several times, and you know what? The book is better! It's always that way, isn't it??

Thursday morning we still had lots to see and do. After breakfast at a nice Sanborns we saw along our walk, we headed to the north bus terminal where we left our luggage in storage. Then via the metro (subway) to the Basilica of Guadalupe. We didn't realize that this was pilgrimage month, so there were crowds and crowds of people there, each pilgrimage group with its distinctive T-shirt. From there we taxied back to the north bus terminal, and headed for San Juan.

What a great visit to our great city! We haven't done anything overly exciting since arriving home, unless you'd consider watching the movie Hook, or eating platanos, black beans and smoothies for breakfast, or having a great night's sleep, or enjoying tamales for supper, exciting!! We're looking forward to a fun two weeks with Rachel and Vanessa. What are our plans? Eating more tamales, a trip to the incredible city of Guanajuato, another trip to Bernal - the third largest rock formation in the world, a quick jaunt over to Tequisquiapan - a favorite shopping town, walking around the town of San Juan del Rio (our town isn't real exciting, but does have some fun stuff!), a game night with Paul and Grace Becker - my team mates, church on Sunday, a get together with other teens, a ladies' meeting at my house, and a lot of other good "unexciting" events!